thebitterguy

So, yeah, we saw Zack & Miri last night, and now I pay the piper by talking about it.

It's a Kevin Smith romantic comedy, so if you like that, you'll like that, and if you don't like it, well, there you go.

I'm not sure if he's getting more scatalogical as the time goes by, or if I'm just growing older and grumpier. There were still funny moments, and gross out moments, and occasionally moments that were both. Jason Mewes spends a fair amount of time naked in the film, and good on him. I guess if he can't have heroin anymore, he can at least hang onto the public nudity.

I was kind of perplexed by the film's treatment of homosexuality. Brandon Routh plays an old high school pal of the titular characters, and Justin Long plays his partner. Long's character is... Well, I think there's an issue with the enthusiasm he brings to it, plus the actual dialogue he's playing. He's locked into high gear as the most hyper-sexualized queen I think I've ever seen, and it made me not a little uncomfortable to watch it. Admittedly, it was better than his role in Die Hard 4 (John Maclean fucks a Jet), but Smith's role in this was better than his role in Die Hard 4, and he didn't have one.

I don't know if Smith has issues with gay sexuality. I assume not, what with Chasing Amy being a paean to LGBT love. It just got a bit much at the end.

Plus, there was poop. I don't know what Anderson did to piss him off, but I think he's even now.

If you go, stay for the credits, because the Nick Fury cameo is WHOA.

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Seriously, this is a question? I'm gonna say Spam. Pointless bullshit can now be streamed right from downtown Moscow offering you pretty much any depravity you care to mention.

This is the worst for me, of course. I'm sure globally there are worse scourges of the intertubes.

Frank is dead.

Frank's online efrank.ca and the bimonthly paper edition ceased publishing Tuesday. The last paper edition, after more than 500 issues, is now on sale at newsstands.

I am filled with sadness at this news.

Watched a recent Ugly Betty, and it was actually worse than the HIMYM ad. They actually had a character eating a lean cuisine lunch thing and then had an ad for them shortly afterwards.


Subtlety is not their strong suit.

The podcast I'm watching is slightly ironic.

So, our Kenmore upright that we'd gotten as a wedding present finally bit the big bag of dust and cat hair, so we knew we had to get a new one.

Cynra & I went to the Sears outlet here in town on Saturday and dropped off our old vacuum for disposal (hopefully they don't just toss it on the trash heap) and to see what they had.

They did have a selection of vacuums for sale. The store here is an outlet store, which means they have some appliances, some vacuums, a couple tvs, and some gear. It's mostly for making catalogue orders and dropping things off for servicing, and picking them up again.

We looked at the various models, and ended up getting a Dyson cannister vacuum. The Animal model, which is supposed to be very good for picking up hair.

So far, it's living up to that.

This machine, while far from cheap, tore through the various cat hair embedded in our carpet. I know it's end of season/shedding time, but this did a great job.

Then, everyone came over and we played Halo until we were sick. madmanofprague's girlfriend claimed she'd never played Halo before. Let me tell you: either she's a quick learner, or a great bluffer.


This song, btw, is on the Christmas album this year.

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Now playing: Isaac Hayes - Mistletoe & Me
http://foxytunes.com/artist/isaac+hayes/track/mistletoe+%26+me

So, wassup?

Fuck, man. I ordered this book for one reason, and one reason only: the cover. The cover shows Captain Marvel, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific fighting an evil Metamorpho in ancient Egypt (you can tell it's ancient Egypt because there are pyramids in the background and sand monsters rising to attack them).



This hit me in the face like a fucking trout. I was all "Man, so much AWESOME shit happened in ancient Egypt in the DCU! You had Nabu, the forefather of Dr. Fate, and you had Black Adam and the original incarnations of Hawkman and Hawkgirl and blah blah blah super story with arc blah blah Orb of Ra blah blah". Yes, the book promised me so much it made me mentally handicapped.

Then, I got the book from my father in law and his wife for Christmas (why isn't she my mother in law? I think it's best we put that in the "let's not go there" category, 'kay?). The book and the cute bag it was put in where misplaced under some Lost figurines (bought, and elizalavelle can confirm this, only because they were half price), and I found it a couple days ago.

I am glad for this, because although I've had the book for 10 months, I did not get to experience the huge disappointment in it until just now.

Of the seven issues of JSA in this book, exactly two deal with the heroes adventures in ancient DCEgypt. It pretty much consists of "Vandal Savage has McGuffin, summons army of sand monsters, heroes fight sand monsters and bring out Deus Ex Machina and win.

The army of Sand Monsters, btw, looks like something from a cheap ass SciFi channel ripoff of The Mummy. I strongly suspect Goyer & Johns dropped some acid, watched The Mummy Two: Electric Boogaloo, and wrote this particular two issue piece of shit.

So, yeah, cover sets up sprawling epic battle, inside it's 2/7s of the book.

The rest of the book consists of Power Girl's super-stalker, Captain Marvel defeating the grandson of a nazi supervillain with love (LOVE! Where's the fucking strength of Hercules, Billy?), and the first two parts of the demi-arc that led the heroes to ancient DCEgypt (which, if nothing else, I made up after reading this book).

Then, another issue got put in with a Dr. Fate subplot and a Kobra story that's apparently part of some ongoing arc with him.

Jesus, what did DC editorial do to Gemworld? It looks so fucked up. Did Amethyst end up spending quality time with Dr. Light in the end? Did I have a reason to punch Didio in the face over the summer?

I have no investment in the JSA. The characters and their relationships and the development, I'm sure that's all fucking FASCINATING over the long term. I'm sure that fucked up comics aging aside (are the original JSA members still all WW II vets? Are my AS-S issues now invalidated? I'm actually not that concerned!), there's lots of fascinating stories to be told here.

But that cover sold me a story, and I got only a fragment of that story inside. And a pretty lousy one, too.

And, yes, it's somewhat self contradictory for a guy who will happily rail against lousily paced stories being padded out to be trade paperbacks complaining that he's getting a bunch of single issue stories bundled together in a trade. Guess what, kids? I am large and hence contain multitudes.

Man. Up on eBay with you, misleading JSA trade!

• 23:44 The baba ghanoush (sp?) is not agreeing with me tonight. #
• 11:50 Lungs acting up today. At least it's a dry cough. #

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• 10:07 Back to the grindstone. Looking forward to Pratchett meetup tonight. Lungs clearing up. #
• 10:41 Spent far too much time last night futzing about with making new ring tones. I'm inordinately pleased with the results. #

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Feel free to make a Halloween trip to visit Castle Blood! I command you!

Located in Beallsville, PA, open this Friday, Saturday & Sunday and next Friday & Saturday.